Not Necessarily the Necessary

The last few months have been full to say the least.  Not necessarily full of the necessary...but full.  Instead of catching up on every boring and not so boring detail, I am going to share some lessons I have learned through that time:

1. I have been working on some extra weight that I put on through a very stressful 2010.  I have learned that the scale does not define me.  Now, we all know that, but this is a big deal because I learned a spiritual lesson.  If every time somebody says something about us (good or bad) we allow it to define us, we forget and disregard the fact that who we are in Christ defines us.  I wake up and face that scale first thing every single morning. We tend to like a scale when it gives us the numbers we want.  We are mad at the scale when it does not tell us what we want to hear.  We are the same person who is standing on the scale either way.  Life is that way too.  Whatever anyone says about us (good or bad) does not have to change or define who we are.  All we can do is keep doing the best we can and hope that others see Jesus in us.
2. I helped facilitate a Summer Bible Study this year.  Two other ladies and I sat down over lunch and decided what we thought was a random selection of who would lead each week.  I later realized that I was leading the VERY weeks that God had ordained.  We worked through Brave by: Angela Thomas .  I taught one week on being undisciplined and the other on fear.  Wow, it was not random which weeks we would teach.  I learned far more those two weeks as I studied than I would have if I had not been forced to dig deeper and lead it.  So when you start thinking something is random, remember that God is charge of EVERYTHING!
3. Late July I started experiencing some pain in my mouth.  I thought it was a tooth issue.  I have serious dentistry anxiety (remember....I had just taught on FEAR).  It finally got so intense that I had no other choice than to call my dentist.  As I sat in the chair waiting on him to come in, I had tears flowing.  It was not just the fear but the intense pain that seemed to consume me when it would hit.  He walked in and immediately put my mind at ease.  He checked my teeth and then checked my jaw.  Yep, it was a muscle problem in my jaw due to me clenching my teeth subconsciously during the day and in my sleep at night.  He fit me for a bite guard and I had to wait 2 weeks for it to come in.  By the time I got the bite guard it had been a month since I first started experiencing the pain.  I cannot describe this pain in words.  It was like these intense muscle spasms in my jaw that radiated all over the right side of my face and head.  My ear, my teeth, my lips, my jaw, my forehead, etc would all hurt so terribly.  Some spasms would last a couple of minutes and others would last over an hour. During this month, I learned several things but the biggest lesson....TRUST IN THE LORD!!!  We are all so quick to quote Proverbs 3:5-6 when we are talking to others about their struggles, but I had to quote it over and over to myself.  Fear would set in each time I would have a spasm.  Doubt and fear would take over.  The day that my dentist fit me for the bite guard he said for me to trust him and know that I would get pretty quick relief once it came in.  People would start questioning me and saying things to me that would scare me.  Finally, a very soft spoken lady at church came to me and said that she had suffered with the same thing and the bite guard worked.  So many people kept trying to convince me it was something far worse.  Well, 24 hours after getting my guard adjusted and wearing it for all but one hour, I felt like a new person.  I still have to be careful because it has been less than a week, BUT I am better.  
4. Finally, I could not attend a meeting about our Fall Bible Study and found out later that I will be facilitating that one.  It is going to be another one that God will use to teach me LOTS of lessons.  It is Lord, Change My Attitude:  Before it is Too Late by: James MacDonald.  Trust me, it is not a coincidence that I am leading this one!  There will probably be LOTS of blog posts on this one.

Bottom line is this, I thought I was just busy busy busy throughout the summer months with very unnecessary things or mundane things, but as I look back God had a lot to teach me through not necessarily the necessary.  

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Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
   don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
   he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all. 

Proverbs 3:5-7